Sanctuary
by Mai1
Summary: Everyone needs a sanctuary sometime - even Jack


Title: "Sanctuary"  
  
Author: Mai  
  
Email: Maisfeeka@AOL.com  
  
Feedback: Always nice  
  
Distribution: CD certainly. Others, just let me know, please.  
  
Disclaimer: Alias and its characters do not belong to me. No  
  
copyright infringement is intended here. Ree is mine.  
  
Summary: A Jack Romance set shortly after Q&A, before Sydney  
  
returns from the mountain. Who does Jack turn to after he discovers  
  
the truth about his wife?  
  
Rating: Hard R  
  
Classification: Romance, Angst, Drama, OC  
  
A/N: I probably would have waited longer to post this, but I thought  
  
it might be a nice distraction to the other things occupying us all  
  
today. And I hope I managed to be sweet without being too sappy. Thanks to Karen T. for beta-ing for me.  
  
*******************************  
  
"Ree."  
  
She spun around to see Jack standing in the entranceway to the kitchen. At seven A.M. on a Saturday morning. With no warning. After days of worrying about him, knowing something was wrong - probably to do with Sydney - and just praying desperately that everything would turn out okay. She started toward him in delight, then stopped dead as he stepped further into the room and she got a good look at him.  
  
He looked like an old man - as if he'd somehow aged 20 years overnight - and he looked defeated.  
  
"Oh God, Jack! Sydney? Is she -"  
  
"Sydney is fine. Now." He couldn't meet her eyes, wouldn't look directly at her. "Or at least she will be."  
  
She could see the lines that exhaustion and fear for his daughter had left on his face, but there was something else, too. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on. "Jack, honey, what's wrong?" She went to him, put her arms around him, but it was like holding an inanimate object. He didn't even seem to notice her presence. She took a step back. "Jack?"  
  
"My. wife . is alive."  
  
She took another step back. "What?"  
  
He still couldn't look at her, couldn't seem to find the energy even to lift his head. "She's alive. She didn't die. She's been alive all this time and I never knew."  
  
"What. How did you.?" She couldn't seem to finish a sentence.  
  
"It was something Sydney figured out, something she said she'd realized. I didn't know what to think. couldn't say anything - just stared at her until she left. And then I did something I shouldn't have done - never have done before - and. it's true. She's alive. They kept it from me all this time."  
  
Ree was stunned. What did one say to this sort of revelation? How did one react?  
  
"I don't know what to do, Ree. Nothing feels real anymore. It's just not right. I feel like there's nothing left to hold onto. Nothing is real."  
  
The vacant look in his eyes frightened her.  
  
"Jack?"  
  
He managed to turn his head towards her.  
  
"When was the last time you slept?"  
  
He shook his head. "I don't know. No time. Couldn't afford." His voice trailed off and his head dropped again.  
  
"All right." Ree touched his sleeve, got his attention again. "Come with me. Come on."  
  
She led him up the stairs and into her bedroom and he followed without a word, so dead on his feet that he stumbled on the last stair. She didn't touch him, almost afraid of what would happen if she jarred him out of wherever he was.  
  
"Come on. You need to get some rest. We can figure things out once you've slept."  
  
He balked at that. "No. I can't. I. I came here because you're real. I need something in my life to be real. If I go to sleep you might disappear, too. I need you to be real."  
  
"I am real. And I'm not going anywhere." She ached to see him so lost. "Okay, then. Here's what we do."  
  
She began stripping out of her clothes and his head came up. Good. At least something had caught his attention.  
  
"Ree?"  
  
"Come on. Bed. Get your clothes off."  
  
He just stared at her as she slipped out of the last of her clothing and stood before him completely nude. "I don't understand."  
  
"Come on, sweetheart," she said. "You need to sleep. I'll stay with you. You can hold on to me as hard as you want so you know I'm real. I swear I won't leave you. I'll stay right there in your arms while you sleep. I'm not going anywhere. I swear to you."  
  
She had to help him undress. His fingers just couldn't seem to manage the buttons. She sat him down on the edge of the bed and removed his shoes and socks, then pulled his pants and briefs off from around his ankles. "Okay. Climb in."  
  
"Ree?"  
  
"What is it, sweetheart?"  
  
"Ree." He wrapped one big hand around her arm and pulled her down next to him. The intensity in his eyes would have frightened her if it hadn't been Jack. His mouth came down hard on hers and his hands came up to hold her head in place.  
  
His kiss was hard - almost bruising. She opened her mouth under his, letting him take and plunder as he would. He kissed her as if he wanted to lose himself in her, with a driving passion that left no room for finesse.  
  
When she tried to pull away a bit, his hands tightened on her like bands of iron, wordlessly protesting even the smallest distance between them. She managed to get her hands up to his face, stroking as she pulled her mouth away to whisper into his ear.  
  
"Jack, wait. Jack."  
  
She gasped as his mouth slid hotly down the side of her face to feast on her neck. At her words he let her push him away enough to be able to see his eyes - black with a passion that made every nerve ending in her body ache to be touched. His breathing was rough and ragged and the look in his eyes said that he'd die if she pushed him away and denied him. The pain in them pierced her heart and she reached out to him instinctively.  
  
"Oh no, hon, that's not what I meant!" She took his hand in hers and wriggled her way backwards until she was lying fully on the bed, "Come on. Isn't this better?" She tugged at him, but he was already coming to her, covering her with his hard body - the heat radiating off of him in waves.  
  
His mouth came down on hers again and one arm wrapped around her, holding her so close to him that she couldn't tell where he stopped and she began. The other hand stroked her, caressing her with a strength that she knew would leave bruises, but all she cared about was getting even closer to him. She rubbed against him and he growled deep in his chest, then drove himself even further into her mouth before deserting it abruptly to blaze a hot wet trail down her neck- leaving her gasping for breath.  
  
She lifted up to close the distance between their bodies, but he pushed her flat on the bed with careless strength and bent his head to take one of her breasts in his mouth. He groaned at the whimpering sound she made and let his free hand knead at her other breast - pulling and teasing at the nipple till it was all she could do not to scream at the pleasure he was giving her.  
  
He pulled away from her breast, leaving it wet and glistening, then dipped back into her mouth for a second before turning his attentions to her other breast. She held his head to her as he licked and sucked, whimpering as he let his teeth rasp against her delicate skin. When he finally released her and let his mouth journey further down her body, all she could do was hold on for dear life.  
  
He sent her flying over and over again - using teeth and tongue and fingers until she was crying helplessly for him to take her. He moved up her body then, taking her mouth roughly just before he thrust into her. She wrapped herself around him - touching and stroking every part of him she could reach - as he drove himself deeper and deeper into her. She whimpered his name, rising up to meet his thrusts until he finally emptied himself into her, muffling his roar with her mouth.  
  
He collapsed on her, completely spent, and buried his face in her neck. She stroked his hair and his sweat-slicked back, murmuring soothing nothings to him until his heartbeat began to slow and he fell asleep in her arms. She shifted slightly until she was comfortable, smiling to herself as his arms tightened unconsciously around her, then let herself drift off to sleep too - both of them safe in the other's arms.  
  
********************  
  
She woke before him, for once, and took the opportunity to watch him as he slept. It was the only time she ever saw his face look truly open and vulnerable. She wondered if he looked that way when he slept alone and let herself imagine that, no, it was only when he slept in her arms. She smiled at her silliness and stroked the silky hair at the nape of his neck. It was a trifle longer than he usually let it get and she found herself musing about what it would be like if he let his hair grow longer. She felt sure that the natural wave would end up curling and she almost laughed at the thought of Jack Bristow with curls.  
  
Had he ever had longer hair? Been a rebellious teenager? So many things she still didn't know about him. So many parts of himself that he'd hidden away from the world. When he slept like this she imagined that she could see traces of the younger man he'd been. The man he'd been before Her.  
  
She sighed and thought back to what he'd told her when he'd come in. His wife. Her. Alive. She knew enough about what had happened twenty years ago to understand how deeply that woman had betrayed Jack - to know the damage she'd done to the man Ree loved so much. And now to find out she was alive? No wonder he'd needed the reassurance of physical contact.  
  
She wondered what this news implied and knew that whatever came of it wouldn't be good. But she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. For now she'd put it aside and concentrate on the man beside her.  
  
"I love you, Jack Bristow," she whispered, then leaned in and brushed a light kiss on his cheekbone. He mumbled something in his sleep and shifted onto his back, drawing her along with him and tucking her snugly against him. She rested her cheek against his warm chest and listened to the strong reassuring sound of his heart beating. She began to feel drowsy again, seduced by the warmth and safety of his arms. She tucked the sheet up around them both and let herself fall back into slumber.  
  
********************  
  
She woke when he sat up abruptly. In her dream they'd been on the beach at sunset. He'd been standing behind her, arms gently enclosing her. They had been silent, hearts and minds in accord without the need for words. The wind swirled around them, a soft counterpoint to the crashing of the waves.  
  
His sudden movement startled her and she struggled to sit up herself. "Jack?"  
  
He glanced at her and then quickly away as if unable to meet her eyes. "I'm sorry," he said brusquely. "My behavior was inexcusable." He got out of the bed and began pulling on his pants.  
  
Ree gaped at him in stunned silence for a moment. "Jack, what's going on? What the hell are you talking about?"  
  
He turned back to her, pants zipped, but not buttoned. "I hurt you," he said angrily.  
  
"Hurt me?"  
  
He came to the side of the bed. His hard hand touched her, stroked along her skin as if she were made of the most fragile porcelain. "Bruises," he said gruffly. "I was too rough - out of control. I hurt you."  
  
She caught at his hand and kissed the palm. "You didn't hurt me, Jack. You loved me. And it may have been a bit rougher than usual, but I've never felt so needed in my life. It's a good feeling. And besides," she said with a wry smile as she reached out to touch a discolored mark on his upper arm, "I think I gave at least as good as I got."  
  
He met her eyes then, wanting to believe her, and saw the honesty and acceptance there. He dipped his head slightly in acknowledgement, feeling the knots in his stomach ease for the first time since he'd awoken and seen the marks he'd left on her.  
  
"Although," she said consideringly, "there is something I think I need from you."  
  
The wariness came back into his eyes. "Yes?"  
  
"Kiss it and make it better?" she asked as mock-innocently as she could manage and grinned as one corner of his mouth turned up in a smile.  
  
"I suppose it is the least I could do," he said dryly and allowed her to pull him back down onto the bed and into the warmth of her love.  
  
********************  
  
The End 9-11-02 


End file.
